Monday, February 23, 2015

The 'Glory' of Connection: Solution Four for Engaging Black Boys in Reading

“They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul,
which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of
utterance.” Frederick Douglass, The
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

The 50th anniversary of the assassination of
Malcolm X was two days ago. In the midst of all the Twitter tributes and
Facebook fanfare, I reflected on my own ‘Malcolm X’ phase which started during
my undergraduate years at Towson University and still continues, in some form,
to this day. Seeing a Black man whose speech was so articulate, so honest, so
unflinching and so visceral was a powerful experience for me. In education, as
in life, the qualitative comes before the quantitative - I have to see it before
I can repeat it. This visual example of Black self-esteem pouring out through potent truth-telling was an object lesson for me. But it was not the first time I had been
connected to a powerful Black male orator.

Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to me in middle school
through the screen of the Cosby Show. Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude
McKay and Paul Laurence Dunbar had a coffee talk with me in high school.
Richard Wright and Alex Haley left their words with me in college. Frederick
Douglass and Ralph Ellison allowed me to give their words to others in college
and post-graduate school life. Those historical writers provided a context for
me that was then complemented by ‘contemporary’ Black male voices in hip-hop
and late 20th century Black literature. These writers helped
me (and still help me) develop my literate identity, which sprang out of my
Black awareness:

Awareness of being
Black is the most powerful and the most fertile single inspiration for Black
writers in America. It is ironic that Blackness, for so long regarded as a
handicap socially and culturally, should also be an artistic strength . . . .
All writers arrive at a reconciliation of a sense of tradition and a sense of
difference. For nearly all Black writers in America that sense of difference
was the recognition of Blackness. For nearly all, but not all. Being Black was
less important for Charles Chesnutt than it was for James Baldwin. But for
most, Blackness was the spur, the barb, or the shirt of pain that moved the
artist to achieve distinction. -Charles T. Davis and Daniel Walden

Below are four ways that you can connect African-American male students with their
historical (and contemporary) counterparts; thereby allowing them to have a
template to express the thoughts of their mind, that could ‘die away for want
of utterance.’

Start early. My son is only four years old at time of
this writing, but my wife and I have been reading him books about Black males
or with Black male characters since day one. It is never too early to show
Black boys that they count by making books featuring them a regular part of
instruction. Here is a list to get you started.

Use poetry and story. In Daniel Pink’s book, ‘A Whole New
Mind,’ he posits that being able to create a story will be the way jobs are
created in the economy of the future. I can think of no better way to help
Black males feel at home in a literate space then to invite story into the
classroom from Pre-K through 12. Have your Black male students write their own
stories as shown here. Also, use poetry to reflect the Black male experience
and all of its iterations from dreams to love of Black women to a desire for home. It’s about providing models of Black men
expressing their thoughts and emotions for young Black boys yearning to do the
same.

Supplant or supplemented the mandated curriculum as
necessary. Anais Nin’s famous quote ‘We don’t see things as they are; we see
things as we are,’ is critical when it comes to the types of texts we put in
front of our Black boys. These potential-rich boys may not relate to
Shakespeare or Chaucer due to an intimate connection with their own milieu. To
that end, maybe Richard Wright and August Wilson are better playwrights for
Black boys. This does not mean to abandon works that are a part of American
culture. Where would I be without this work? But, it’s about helping reify the
themes and life experiences of Black Boys (‘If
you can teach me how to cling to that which is real to me…’) while also
informing their minds about the conventions of the language of wider
communication, (‘while teaching me a way
into the
larger society…’), thereby allowing
every Black boy to establish a text-to-self connection and a self-to-teacher
connection (‘then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises
and help you to make the desert bear fruit.’ Ralph Ellison).

Show Black men shining. I love watching Black men powerfully
tell the truth. I love seeing us speak with authority, like what happened last night. If we regularly feed images like these to our Black boys, it can serve
as a counter-narrative to the many destructive images the media pumps out an
alarming rate. Black boys should see Black males debating and winning, speaking
from places of power and emoting with vulnerability and passion. Black male brilliance must
be seen. Remember, it first must be qualitative before it can be quantitative.

Ending note: Curriculum
is so much more than course guides, syllabi, standards and worksheets.
Curriculum is the classroom environment that is created by accepted words,
actions and ideas both in texts and from students and teachers. This environment
is created second-by-second, and has the power to affirm or ignore the
existence of traditionally under-served students and their cultures. When the
curriculum is malleable enough to put Black male students and their experiences
at the center, we create a space for them to thrive!

Only one more strategy to go.

Give a Black boy an amazing literary experience the next class period,